Britain cracking down on sex slave trade

Women from Asia and elsewhere duped by offers of legitimate jobs


LONDON - BRITISH police are to crack down on a booming trade in sex slaves, increasing numbers of whom are being brought to Britain from Asia.

Thousands of women are being brought in from countries such as Malaysia and China, as well as eastern Europe and parts of Africa, to work as prostitutes, according to British media reports backed by police figures.

A large proportion of them are brought to Britain against their will, and some are being sold for sums as high as &pound8,000 (S$24,000).

They arrive mostly on commercial flights, and are often lured to Britain by gang members on the false promise of legitimate work as cleaners, nannies and dancers.

Their passports are taken from them on arrival at the airport and they are forced to work at brothels to 'pay off' the expenses of transporting them to Britain.

It is estimated that around 85per cent of the women working in secret brothels in Britain are foreigners.

This represents a dramatic increase from the mid-1990s, when an estimated 85per cent were British citizens.

This increase is, in part, a result of the entry of several eastern European countries into the European Union in 2004.

Relaxed labour regulations have made it easier for women to be moved to Britain from countries such as Poland, Lithuania and Latvia for ostensibly legitimate reasons.

But the increase is also a reflection of the increasing sophistication and global reach of the criminal gangs that control much of the trafficking. They are operating trans-nationally, in collaboration with gangs from other countries.

Although the secretive sex trade is difficult to measure with any accuracy, it is believed that Malaysia, China and Thailand are the principal sources of sex slaves in Britain after eastern Europe.

In a campaign known as Operation Pentameter last year, nearly 84 victims of human trafficking were rescued in a series of police raids across Britain.

The largest operation saw 19 women, mostly from Malaysia, rescued from addresses in London and Birmingham where they were being held against their will and forced to have sex with paying clients.

The ringleader and his female partner who were arrested were said to be of Vietnamese origin.

The crackdown was led by Detective Superintendent Mark Ponting of London's Metropolitan Police, who has now been put in charge of a new campaign focusing on organised criminal networks.

In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, he stressed the difficulty of securing convictions against traffickers when rescued women are often terrified of giving evidence against their former captors.

'You have to remember the trauma and difficulties associated with this crime. Many of these women are so traumatised that it is just inconceivable they would give evidence in a trial.

'These women have been held against their will, raped many times and their lives have been ruined. That is why the courts treat this offence so seriously.'

Traffickers caught in Britain can expect jail sentences of 13 or 14 years.

The new police initiative is consistent with the heightened priority attached to combating the sex trade by the British government.

Britain sought to encourage greater cooperation between European states in fighting human trafficking during its presidency of the EU in 2005.

In the next few weeks the government is expected to set out a new strategy to counter the problem, both within Britain and in cooperation with foreign governments and law enforcement agencies.

A Home Office spokesman told the BBC that 'human trafficking is a particularly horrible crime, based on deceit, exploitation and very often brutality'.